China 高一 History

1. Outline I U1 Origins to Qin–Han unification

Origins of civilisation and early states · Warring states and reforms · Qin unification · Western and Eastern Han

• Early Civilisation and States: From Villages to Kingdoms – Early civilisations began when farming gave spare food. In China, farming villages (about 5000 BCE) grew into walled towns with craftspeople (about 3000 BCE). Later came the Xia (a dynasty described in tradition), the Shang (about 1600 to 1046 BCE) with bronze and writing on oracle bones, and the Western Zhou (1046 to 771 BCE), where a king shared land with lords and claimed the Mandate of Heaven. Together these steps created the first Chinese states.
• Warring States, Hundred Schools and Shang Yang's Reform – After the Zhou king weakened in 770 BCE, many small states fought for power in the Spring and Autumn period (770 to 476 BCE). By the Warring States period (475 to 221 BCE) only seven big states remained. Iron tools and ox ploughs raised harvests and fed bigger armies. Thinkers of the Hundred Schools, such as Confucians, Daoists, Mohists and Legalists, argued how to rule. In Qin, Shang Yang's reforms rewarded farming and service, and made one law for all, making Qin very strong.
• Qin Unification: Seven States Become One Empire – For about 500 years, China was split into many fighting states. In 221 BCE the western state of Qin beat the last of six rivals, and its king became the First Emperor. He made one coin, one script and one set of measures. He cut the land into regions run by officers he could remove. This is called a centralised system. But heavy tax, forced work and harsh laws made farmers angry. After he died in 210 BCE they revolted, and Qin ended in 206 BCE, only 15 years after it united the land.
• Western and Eastern Han: China’s Long Golden Age – The Han dynasty ruled China for about 400 years (206 BCE to 220 CE). Liu Bang, a farmer’s son, founded it after Qin fell. Early Han rulers lowered taxes and let farms recover. Emperor Wu (141 to 87 BCE) grew the empire and trained officials in Confucian ideas. His envoy Zhang Qian opened the way to the Silk Road, a chain of trade routes that carried silk, ideas and later Buddhism. After a short break under Wang Mang, Eastern Han began in 25 CE with its capital at Luoyang. Han people gave China paper, an earthquake sensor and its first great history book. Powerful families, revolts and generals ended Han in 220 CE.

2. Outline I U2 Three Kingdoms to Sui–Tang

Regime changes and ethnic integration · Sui–Tang to Five Dynasties · Sui–Tang institutions · Culture from Three Kingdoms to Tang

• Three Kingdoms to the Southern Dynasties: Regime Change and Ethnic Integration – After Han ended in 220 CE, China split into three kingdoms: Wei, Shu and Wu. The Jin dynasty joined them in 280 CE, but wars between princes and invasions broke it by 316 CE. Jin leaders fled south and set up Eastern Jin (317 CE). For the next 270 years the north was ruled by dynasties started by herding peoples, such as Northern Wei, while the south had four short Han-led dynasties: Song, Qi, Liang, Chen. In this long age of division, millions moved, farms spread south, and different peoples mixed through marriage, language, dress and Buddhism. This mixing prepared the ground for the Sui and Tang.
• Sui and Tang to the Five Dynasties: Unity, Golden Age and Decline – In 581 Yang Jian founded the Sui dynasty and in 589 he joined north and south after nearly 300 years. Sui built the Grand Canal but fell in 618 because of heavy forced labour and costly wars. The Tang dynasty (618 to 907) learned from this. Emperor Taizong ruled wisely, Wu Zetian ruled as emperor, and under Xuanzong the capital Chang’an became one of the biggest, most open cities of the world. The An Lushan revolt (755 to 763) weakened the court; military governors grew strong and Tang ended in 907. Five short dynasties in the north and ten kingdoms elsewhere followed until Song reunited the land in 960.
• Sui-Tang Institutions: Three Departments, Six Ministries, Exams and Taxes – Sui and Tang built a government that later dynasties copied for centuries. At the top, three departments (Secretariat, Chancellery, State Affairs) wrote, checked and carried out orders, so no one decided alone. Under State Affairs sat six ministries: Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice and Works. Officers were increasingly chosen by imperial exams, so that talent could matter as well as family. Farmers received land under the equal-field system and paid taxes in grain, cloth and labour. After the An Lushan revolt this broke down, and in 780 the two-tax system made people pay according to the land and wealth they held, twice a year.
• Culture from the Three Kingdoms to the Tang (220 to 907) – Between 220 and 907 China lived through war and then through a golden age. Buddhism came from India and joined Confucian and Daoist ideas. Poetry, calligraphy, painting and cave art flowered. Scientists found a good value of pi, printed the oldest dated book and found gunpowder.

3. Outline I U3 Liao, Song, Xia, Jin, Yuan

Politics and military of the Song · Liao, Xia, Jin, Yuan rule · Economy, society and culture

• Politics and Military of the Song (960 to 1279) – Zhao Kuangyin founded the Song in 960 and took power from governors and generals, giving it to civil officials. The Song was strong at home but weak in war. It kept peace with Liao and Xia by paying silver, silk and tea, and in 1127 lost the north to the Jin and moved south.
• Liao, Xia, Jin and Yuan Rule – From about 916 to 1368, rulers from the steppe and the north-east governed parts of China. The Liao used dual administration: Khitan custom for herders and Chinese-style offices for farmers. Xia and Jin also mixed old and new ways. The Mongol Yuan ruled all China through a central office and about ten provinces.
• Economy, Society and Culture in the Song – In the Song, better rice and wet fields drew people south, and after 1127 the south held most of China's people and trade. Cities grew and paper money appeared. Neo-Confucianism, ci poetry and inventions such as movable type, the compass and the water clock tower marked the culture.

4. Outline I U4 Ming and Qing

Ming to early Qing · High Qing and crisis · Economy and culture

• From the Ming to the Early Qing (1368 to 1644) – Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming in 1368 and kept all power with the emperor. Yongle moved the capital to Beijing and sent Zheng He on seven great voyages. In the late Ming, a distant court, costly wars, famine, taxes and revolts weakened the state, and in 1644 the Manchu Qing entered Beijing.
• High Qing and Crisis: Territory, the Grand Council and a Hidden Problem – Between about 1680 and 1790 the Qing dynasty of China became very large, rich and peaceful under three long-ruling emperors: Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong. Taiwan, Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang came under its rule, and the Grand Council gave the emperor fast, secret control. But the number of people grew much faster than farmland, officials grew greedy and trade rules were too tight. Under the shine, a crisis was building.
• Economy and Culture in Ming and Mid-Qing China – From the 1400s to the late 1700s, Chinese farmers sold more of what they grew, craft workshops and merchant groups grew, and silver became the money of trade and taxes. This commodity economy made towns richer and gave more people time to read. The result was a lively culture of novels, new ideas about mind and government, practical science and giant book projects, together with strict control of some writing.

5. Outline I U5–U8 Modern China 1840–1949

Opium Wars; exploring national paths; saving the nation · 1911 Revolution; Beiyang period · May Fourth; CPC founding; Nanjing government; new revolutionary path · War of Resistance; War of Liberation

• Paths to Modernisation: Japan, China and Korea – Japan, China and Korea all became modern, but by different paths. Japan, opened by US ships in 1853, began the Meiji reforms in 1868: railways, factories, schools and a strong army under the emperor. It then grew into an empire, fought the Second World War and was defeated in 1945. Under US occupation it got a peaceful constitution and rebuilt into a rich country (1964 Olympics). China ended the rule of emperors in 1911 under Sun Yat-sen; after years of civil war and Japanese invasion Mao's Communist Party won in 1949. Mao's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution hurt the economy. From 1978 Deng Xiaoping opened markets under the Four Modernisations, and China grew fast. Korea was a Japanese colony (1910–45), was split in two and suffered a war (1950–53); South Korea then grew through export factories and became a democracy in 1987.

6. Outline I U9–U11 PRC

Founding of PRC; transition to socialism; exploration · Reform and opening up · New era · Activity: evolution of a unified multi-ethnic state

Coming soon

7. Outline II U1–U2 Ancient and medieval world

Birth of civilisations; empires and exchange · Medieval Europe, Asia, Africa and Americas

• Writing and City Life: Mesopotamia in the 3rd Millennium BCE – Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, had some of the first cities (from about 3500 BCE). Canals made the south rich in grain. Temples grew into big institutions, war leaders became kings, and towns like Uruk and Ur grew. City life meant division of labour, trade and ranks in society. Writing began about 3200 BCE as cuneiform on clay tablets, first for accounts, then for laws, letters, stories and science. Historians debate who writing served: record keeping, or power for the few who could read.
• The Medieval World: Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas (c. 500–1500) – From about 500 to 1500 the world was a set of regions with their own rulers, faiths and trade. Europe was a land of kings, lords, peasants and a powerful Church. Asia had large empires (Tang and Song China, the Abbasid caliphate, the Mongols) linked by trade routes. Africa had rich trading kingdoms (Ghana, Mali, Great Zimbabwe, Swahili ports). The Americas had cities built on maize (Maya, Aztec, Inca) with no contact with the rest until 1492.

8. Outline II U3–U5 Towards a connected world

Global sea routes; global links · Intellectual emancipation; bourgeois revolutions · Industrial Revolution; Marxism

• The Age of Exploration (c. 1400–1600) – Between about 1400 and 1600, sailors from Portugal and Spain, and later other European countries, opened new sea routes across the world's oceans. They wanted spices and gold without paying many middlemen, they wanted to spread Christianity, and they wanted fame. New ships (the caravel), the compass, the astrolabe and better maps made long trips possible. Dias reached the southern tip of Africa (1488), Columbus reached the Americas (1492), da Gama reached India (1498) and Magellan's fleet sailed round the world (1519–22). Earlier, Zheng He of China had led huge fleets to Africa (1405–33). The voyages linked the whole world for the first time. They brought trade, new foods and wealth to Europe, but also conquest, deadly disease and the Atlantic slave trade.
• Changing Cultural Traditions: Renaissance, Reformation and Science – From the 14th to the 17th century, rich Italian trading cities led a new interest in Greek and Roman learning called humanism. Artists aimed for realism, using perspective and the study of the body; architects built great domes. Printing spread ideas. Some educated women wrote and ruled. Luther's challenge in 1517 split the Western Church into Catholic and Protestant groups, and the Catholic Church reformed itself. Copernicus, Galileo and Newton changed how people saw the universe, and sailors found sea routes to the Americas and India.
• The Age of Industrialisation – Before factories, merchants gave raw material to peasant families who spun and wove at home (proto-industrialisation). From the 1760s Britain built cotton mills, machines like the spinning jenny and James Watt's improved steam engine. Change was slow: hand labour stayed cheap and common. In India, weavers once supplied world markets; the East India Company controlled them through gomasthas, and Manchester cloth later flooded India. From 1854 Indian mills grew in Bombay and elsewhere, and small workshops also grew. Makers sold goods through labels, calendars and adverts, and swadeshi adverts appealed to national pride.

9. Outline II U6–U9 Modern and contemporary world

Colonial system and independence movements · World wars, October Revolution, international order · Late 20th-century changes; Cold War · Multipolarity, globalisation, peaceful development

• Imperialism: Why Empires Grew and How People Resisted – Imperialism is when a powerful state takes control over other lands and peoples, by war, treaties or money. Colonialism is one form: ruling a colony directly. Between about 1870 and 1914 ('New Imperialism') industrial powers raced for colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. They wanted raw materials, markets, places to invest, ports and prestige, and excused it with racist ideas. Control grew from trading posts to unequal treaties to full colonies. The colonies were drained: raw materials left cheap, factory goods came back, local industry fell. People resisted with revolts, reforms and mass movements, and most colonies were free by the 1970s. The borders and inequalities left behind still shape the world.
• World War II (1939–1945) – World War II was the deadliest war in history. Its roots were the anger left by World War I, the Great Depression and the rise of dictators in Germany, Italy and Japan. It began when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. The Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan) fought the Allies (Britain and its empire, France, the USSR, the USA, China and others). It was a total war and a war of annihilation: about 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and 70–85 million people died. Germany surrendered in May 1945 and Japan in September 1945. The war led to the United Nations, the Cold War and the end of empires.
• The Cold War (1945–1991) – The Cold War was a long contest (1945–1991) between two superpowers: the USA with its Western allies (capitalism, multi-party elections) and the USSR with its Eastern allies (communism, one-party rule). They never fought each other directly. Instead they formed rival alliances (NATO, Warsaw Pact), raced to build nuclear weapons and reach space, backed opposite sides in proxy wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan) and came close to nuclear war in Cuba in 1962. Many new nations, led by India and others, stayed non-aligned. Détente eased tension in the 1970s. Reforms in the USSR, the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the break-up of the USSR (1991) ended it.
• The Making of a Global World – People, goods, ideas and germs have moved across the world for thousands of years: on the silk routes, with food crops like potato and maize, and with diseases like smallpox. Between 1815 and 1914 the world economy grew through three flows: goods, labour and capital, helped by railways, steamships and refrigerated ships. Colonies paid a price: rinderpest in Africa and indentured labour from India. After the First World War came mass production in the USA and then the Great Depression of 1929, which hit India's farmers hard. After 1945, the Bretton Woods system, the IMF and the World Bank rebuilt the world economy.